EF-S 17-55 Image Stabilizer broken

[yannig]

Last weekend i was shooting at an indoor event when i changed to my 17-55. I wanted to shoot something (that's

what i do with my camera!), looked through the viewfinder, and saw a VERY shaky image! Apparently my IS made it

vibrate heavily on the vertical axis.

 

I removed the lens, cleaned the contacts (lens + body), removed the battery, my grip, CF. I tried it again, but

still the same. At 55mm it still works perfectly fine, but when i zoom out to around 45mm the shake kicks in,

with its peak at 35mm. The shake stays until the IS stops. It vibrates with a very high frequency.

 

My other IS lens (70-300 4-5.6 IS USM) still works flawlessly. My body is the EOS 400D.

 

I know i should send it in (still in warranty), but i'm leaving for Italy this weekend, and after that i've got

some jobs. I really can't miss this lens right now.

 

So, has anyone witnessed anyhting like this before? Or better, does anyone have an idea what i could do to solve

this?

[jason_hall5]

Don't use IS.... Sorry.

 

Jason

[jason_hall5]

One thing people argue about when it comes to IS, is that is one more thing to go wrong. But when it does fail, the lens still works fine with out it. Should not be a major issue in that focal length. I too own a 17-55f2.8IS, would hate to loose IS, but the lens is still useable with out it.

 

Jason

[rainer_t]

Will it be still under warranty when you return from italy? Is the imagequality still good if you switch off IS?

If both are yes, you could eventually think of using it without IS. If you lose warranty, or if the image looks decentered without IS, you have no choice but sent it to canon now.

[jason_hall5]

Rainer T make an excellent point. If the failure has caused the IS element to come out of alignment, it could cause noteable IQ problems.

 

Jason

[mark u]

You should certainly avoid using IS at all at the moment. It's likely that something has broken inside the IS unit - perhaps a bearing. Using IS will only make the damage worse. As Rainer says, evaluate whether the lens is optically OK for emergency use. Otherwise, get it repaired under warranty now, and if you must have one, buy or rent another.

[yannig]

Thanks for the quick responses.

<br><br>

I already decided to take it with me to Italy and not use the IS, image quality seems fine in the shots i already

took. Still, i think it's my favorite lens (don't get me started ;)) and i hate to see something like that happen.

<br><br>

Yes, i must concur that having IS is yet another thing that can go wrong. My 70-300 has already been sent in for

an alignment problem. Caused by the IS or not, i don't know, but the only two lenses i'll have sent in are my

lenses with IS.

<br><br>

On my trip to Italy i'll do fine indeed without IS (most of the time ...). But when i'm back i'll have to get

back to taking pictures at dark places. I often find myself shooting at ISO1600 F/2.8 at 1/20s or slower ... (<a

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nogood/sets/72157606499335632/">here for example</a>)

[steve santikarn]

perhaps take a monopod to make up for the lack of IS. My 17-55 EF-S lens will not auto focus while I was travelling in Japan, luckily I had the 10-22 EF-S as a backup wideangle lens. My 70-300 IS also had to be repaired twice, I am not very impressed with the reliability of the Canon IS lenses.